I have been on a ketogenic diet for 4 weeks now. I lost 8 lbs in my first week (I realize this is water weight), but only 12 lbs total. I’ve lost one in the past 2 weeks
I am definitely in ketosis, as I test randomly throughout the day and show high levels of ketones each time. I am tracking my macros extremely closely with apps and spreadsheets and logs.
The weight hardly seems to budge, however. Any tips? I’m considering an 18 hour fast as a last resort to kick this into gear.
You’re in what’s called the post-induction “stall”. Chances are you aren’t doing anything wrong. If you’re not going over 20g net carbs, just wait it out. You won’t lose weight every week.
There’s a reason the forums motto is KCKO (Keep calm and Keto on)
Patience is required… I’m guessing it took more than 4 weeks to gain the weight you want to lose?
It often takes people a month or more to start really losing noticeable amounts of fat. It really depends on how much hormonal and metabolic healing we require. The damage we do to ourselves by eating processed foods can take some time to undo.
There are some things that might also complicate weight loss like stress, medications, sex, age and existing medical conditions so it might help to tell us about yourself: age, how much to lose, sex, what you are eating in a typical day.?
Female, age 26. I take Welbutrin, 150mg. daily, as well as a birth control. The Welbutrin is known to help people lose weight, and I lost 30 lbs while on it for the first few months. I do not have any existing medical conditions.
For breakfast (it varies): 2-3 eggs, 3 strips of bacon or 2 sausage links.
For lunch (it varies): Sometimes a burger patty with lettuce, mayo, mustard. Sometimes tuna or chicken salad. Other times a salad with grilled chicken and keto-friendly toppings.
For dinner (it varies): Chicken or beef, a keto-friendly vegetable (often cauliflower, asparagus, or broccoli.)
For snacks: Cheese Sticks, almonds, sugar-free Jello, mozzarella and pepperoni.
I find myself needing to eat a fat bomb every few days to get my fats in.
Are you taking Wellbutrin for depression or weight loss? I read that sometimes it can cause weight gain. Maybe it’s affecting you differently than it did before the LCHF diet. Birth control pills can cause weight gain and water retention as well as your monthly cycle. At any rate 4 weeks isn’t long to feel like things aren’t working, women lose slower, people without a lot to lose lose slower. Are your clothes any looser? You could be loosing fat and getting more muscle and bone mass. Keto is more about rebalancing your metabolism and body composition than weight loss, which is part of the process of your body repairing itself. 
For depression. In my first few months of taking it, I lost 30 lbs. I’ve been on the BC pills for awhile now (much longer than keto) and never had any weight gain with them.
It’s hard to tell if my clothes are any looser… they were already loose from the 30 lb loss from Welbutrin.
The only macronutrient we really need to worry about is carbohydrate. Keeping it low enough to lower our insulin level is the real point of a ketogenic diet, because not only do high levels of glucose and insulin in the blood do significant damage over time, but insulin is also the fat-storage hormone, and when it is too high, there is no hope of getting fat out of our fat cells to be metabolized.
Most people don’t need to worry about protein. Protein intake seems to stay pretty much the same after beginning keto as it was pre-keto.
Eating fat as part of a well-formulated ketogenic diet is about getting energy for the body to do its thing without increasing insulin. Fat has a minimal effect on insulin secretion, so it is the best source of calories to replace the calories no longer coming from carbohydrate. But we urge people to eat to satiety, not to some arbitrary fat goal. So save the fat bombs for when you’re hungry, don’t feel obliged to eat them just 'cause.
Once insulin has been low enough long enough, the hormonal signaling that stimulates and suppresses appetite usually becomes a reliable guide to how much to eat. The body knows what it needs, and we can trust it to tell us.
Please give yourself another month or two of ketogenic eating before you decide it’s not for you. Women in particular often seem to need a period of re-regulation before their bodies decide to start shedding fat. My guess is that in such cases there is healing going on behind the scenes. Also, fat loss is never a linear thing, even for those people who shed amazing amounts, so fluctuations and apparent stalls are a part of the process. It doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong.
I would consider ridding almonds and sugar free jello which usually is packed with maltodextrin which can be as bad as sugar on the body! Also your body is adjusting to a new way of eating. Let it do it’s thing.
Welcome to the group, it’s a great place.
Congrats on your loss so farm 12lbs is great. I’m male and was losing at a rate about 1 or 2 lbs per week.
Obviously don’t change any pills because of any discussion here - but birth control pills are a hormone which is telling your body it is pregnant. So there will definitely be a part of you which will in no way want to lose fat! Insulin isn’t the only hormone in town. Let’s not even mention all the other female hormones … so yeah 12lbs is quite good.
Female biology is definitely more complex but keto works for young and old, male and female.
Not sure if Welbutrin will interfere with keto or not.
Meantime, just ensure the 20g carbs and no hidden carbs and you should be OK.
The only tip is - simply keep doing what you are doing, check again in a week or two.
Cheers.
From https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/diagnosis-diet/201803/ketogenic-diets-and-psychiatric-medications
warnings about starting ketogenic diets are not to be taken lightly if you take medications
Ketogenic diets cause profound shifts in brain and body chemistry rather quickly. These changes are almost always positive and healthy, but they can have a major impact on medication levels, dosages, and side effects that require close medical supervision, particularly in the first month or two while your metabolism adjusts to your new healthy way of eating.
It doesn’t say anything about Wellbutrin in particular, and I can’t find anything other than other forum posts about people who can’t stay in ketosis or can’t lose weight who claim it’s the Wellbutrin. I am on it too and never really thought about it interfering. But from other people’s posts, it might.
However, I am still a newbie at this and getting used to the diet, I am also not losing weight almost 4 weeks in, but it has helped my mood more than any of the 500 million other happy pills I have tried.
I can relate to the post. Any suggestions for how to lose weight? I got serious and started with the Keto diet in December, for the last few weeks I have been in keto 24/7 and have not lost any weight. I am feeling more hungry, but no longer have carb cravings. I eat 3 times a day: 3 eggs, 50 grams of salmon, 12 chicken wings and 3 cups with a green leafy salad with all meals, also I have 2 cups of MCT coffee. I have started intermittent fasting schedule 16/8.
What I wonder: Am I not Keto enough? Lacking any vitamins or minerals?
My measure looks like this, not completely dark yet:
So are you eating 12 wings, 3 cups of greens and 50 grams of salmon every meal x3 or is that a total for all three meals? If it’s a total, I would say you are pretty high on protein and only around 100 grams of fat per day. Keto is high fat, moderate protein and low carbs. You are roughly 54% fat, 38% protein and 8% carbs if my calculations are correct.
Until you reach a point of being fat adapted, I would raise that % of fat and that should give your body more access to fuel between meals, which should help with your hunger issues. Chicken wings and salmon are good things to include in your keto diet but they both tend to be much higher in protein than fat.
I would try to include fatty beef and pork items into your diet too. My ideal keto meats have equal grams of fat and protein and that works out to 31% protein and 69% fat. You can plug items into cronometer.com to experiment with what meats will help you achieve this.
I believe you will see better results once you get the hunger resolved.
Hi Carl. It is for 3 meals. One with eggs&salmon and salad, one with chicken wings and salad, and one salad only with some nuts. I eat a lot of salad, mostly green with some red peppers and sometimes a few black olives. Thank you for your advice, I will add ground-beef to my diet in the coming week, trying to eat one main meal and two meals with fatty chocolates and one with salad. I will check out cronometer.com.
For this week the main meal will be egg-cheese-ground beef muffins, they are really tasty.
